French For Fidgets

Ellie and I have recently started attending 'French for Fidgets' with her best friend, Elen, and her dad, Jason. It is great fun. Lucy, the organiser/teacher, puts an incredible amount of effort into the classes. Every week she has baked biscuits (shaped like animals) which the kids love. Many of her props are beautifully homemade - I particularly like the happy and sad wooden spoons! She has printed out and laminated all the song lrics in French and English. Every week there is a structured art/craft activity which goes down well after the singing and games.

I think Ellie was initially a little shy around the new people but seemed to understand that most of the speaking was in French; Lucy says something in French first, then in English, then in French a few more times. But after a few weeks Ellie is tentatively saying, bonjour, au revoir, merci, s'il vous plait, oui, non, j'ai trois ans, je m'appelle Ellie, ca va bien and I've heard her singing "cinq fromages dans le fromagerie..." and "sur ma bicyclette..."! She's even tried teaching her peers at nursery to count in French and say bonjour.

Lucy has put a lot of effort into promoting the classes. She firmly (and correctly) believes that the approach to learning languages within our education system is all wrong. Young children below 5 can learn several languages as easily as they can learn one. This ability decreases as the child grows. By ages 10-11 its an upward struggle but this is traditionally when children first start formally learning other languages. It's crazy when you think about it! The saddest thing is though, as Lucy says, she encounters much resistance from parents of 2 or 3 year olds who think their child will fail to master English if they are confused by the presence of a second language. This simply is not the case. It is noticeable that the 2 year olds at the class pick up new words in French quicker than Ellie and Elen, and yet their Englsih is about where you would expect.

We are not expecting that Ellie will be fluent in French by the time she's five or anything, but at least she is starting out appreciating that their are other languages and cultures with their own songs to sing. She enjoys the company and the activities and therefore it is a good thing.

I strongly recommend language courses of this type to toddlers everywhere! It's good for parents to brush up on their skills to!

Chronicles of a Stay at Home Dad #4

We've all had a lovely weekend. Ellie appeared shattered after her 3 days at nursery last week. On Thursday we spent the Morning at Wacky Warehouse with Evie and Tracey. They had a great time. Ellie can now pull herself up onto almost everything and seemed to relish this new freedom. She wanted me to play with her more than usual which meant that I got to go down a big blue slide with her sat on my lap -not something we've done for ages. She also pushed me down a bendy slide when I thought she was going to sit in my lap again.... I was surprised how strong she was! She loved it when I fell backwards into the ballpool, although I made a mental note to check for small children buried in the balls before I do it again! There was a little (18 months?) boy who hadn't been before. It was quite entertaining in a "thank god he's not mine" kind of way as he refused to permit other children anywhere near him or to use the equipment he wanted to. This nearly resulted in a couple of injuries...the closest, and most dramatic, being when he pushed a small girl off a ladder 7' above the ball pool...fortunately a grown up caught her just in time!

Ellie slept nearly all of Thursday afternoon and then helped do housework until Lisa came home. Lisa worked from home on Friday and Ellie loved having her nearby. I can't remember what we did but Lisa and Baby Emma (now walking!) came over in the afternoon. It was lovely to see them and Ellie was very attentive as usual.

We all had a relaxed, restful Saturday, with Ellie having another long sleep. We read books and watched a Disney movie or two! Ellie currently loves 'Cinderella' and the 'Aristocats'. We then had a great evening at Ellie's friend Elen's house. The girls played and ate together before retiring. The grown ups, Lisa and I and Elen's parents Jason and Annette, then had a gorgeous meal, with good wine. It was a wonderful, relaxed evening of good company and good conversation. We took 'Diamant' with us and Annette and Jason appeared to enjoy this gentle introduction to Eurogaming! (They'll be playing 'Caylus' by Christmas!).

Lisa took Ellie swimming on Sunday morning which they both enjoyed. I stayed home and tidied around and cooked lunch ready for the arrival of Ellie's godfather, Steer. Ellie fell asleep before he arrived and so didn't get to have lunch with us. This gave the grown ups a good chance to catch up and chat. Steer enjoyed reading to Ellie once she did awaken.

We then headed off to Pizza Hut to round off a pleasant weekend. Afterwards, with Ellie tucked up in bed, Lisa and I snuggled up on the sofa to watch CSI:NY taped on Saturday. We agreed it had been a perfect weekend.

Lisa was concerned that I had missed out taking Ellie swimming. But I explained that I was happy to stay at home and do some housework, thus giving her the chance to spend quality time alone with her daughter; sometimes the skill of being a stay at home dad is to know when simply to stay at home!